Recipe Review: Chocolate Stout Cake by The Beer Journals

My relationship with stout is very love-love and stout is a beverage you either love or hate, I rarely see anyone who is In the middle. Why? The flavor of stout is too bold to be disguised most of the time.

I recently started researching baking with beer and I found this chocolate stout cake recipe by The beer journals. This recipe had no reviews so I decided to make it and see how it tasted.

                                           

A few things made me want to make this recipe. These things made me curious to see how this cake would turn out. First of all, there is no butter or oil in the cake batter. While i was making this cake, I checked the ingredients list multiple times to ensure that I did not leave out the butter and oil by mistake.  The second thing that drew me in was the use of the all-in method of mixing.

I divided the recipe into half and baked the batter in a half loaf pan.

Here is my review of the chocolate stout cake from the beer journals

The recipe and instructions

The ingredients in this recipe are very similar to that of a simple chocolate pound cake without the milk and butter but with a bit of stout. The instructions involved mixing all the ingredients minus the stout.

 The instructions states that the stout should be mixed into the dry ingredients gradually. After mixing up the batter, I poured it into a prepared baking tin and baked it for about 35 minutes.

The cake rose and had a prominent dome. From the appearance, I had high expectations for this recipe.

While the cake was cooling I decided to make a glaze. I discarded the one that came with the recipe and made a lighter glaze of icing sugar, stout and milk.

The texture

The texture of this cake was incredibly disappointing. It made me go back to the recipe twice to make sure that I did not leave anything out. The rise of the cake was deceptive as this cake was neither fluffy nor airy.

Instead, it was a mix of slightly soft but dense with a bit of chew. None of my taste testers enjoyed the texture of this cake. The only thing I could do to try and redeem this cake was to drown it in the glaze. The glaze helped to soften the texture of the cake and make it less chewy.

The taste

The flavor of this cake was okay. I could taste the stout but in a very subtle way. If I did not bake the cake, I would not think there was stout in this cake.

The maltiness of the stout complimented the chocolate cake and gave the chocolate flavor more depth. The stout created that unknown flavor that could make people ask for your recipe.

Do I recommend this recipe?

No.

I will not even try to justify this verdict because I think it is self-explanatory. The flavor is the best part of this cake but it is impossible to fully appreciate the flavor if you cannot move past the texture.

I believe there are many chocolate stout cakes that will yield better outcomes. When I find one, I will inform you all.

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